Domo arigato to sensei Peter Van Westering, 6th Dan black belt in Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu karate, for coming out from Longwood to Cocoa Beach to share some of his karate knowledge and expertise with us today in a two and a half hour seminar. It was especially great for me to be reunited with one of my first sensei’s in NYC, who I trained with every weekday at lunchtime for years and whose brown belt classes, which I also attended for years (even as a black belt) were infamous every Tuesday night.
Those of us that showed up were treated to some powerful and deadly applications taken directly from our kata. The theme of the seminar was taken directly from our textbook, “The Essence of Okinawan Karate” by O’Sensei Shoshin Nagamine, page 252 in Chapter VI “On Kumite (Sparring)” – see the seven essential conditions for effective kumite – which include simultaneous defending and attacking as well as body shifting and reflexivity.
Sensei Van Westering used these elements as it applies to application of kata techniques. While we only scratched the surface today, we were exposed to applications taken directly from the kata to totally incapacitate an opponent in a real life street situation. Having some exposure to these applications makes the doing the traditional kata come alive! “Motobu, my (Shoshin Nagamine’s) sensei used to preach against “dead kumite”. We are on a path to bringing both kumite and kata come alive as we are exposed to, and learn deadly applications…this is authentic Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do!
Sensei Van Westering has graciously agreed to come back and do some more training with us. Those of you who missed this time, ought to make an effort to catch him when he comes back for another session with us.
Sensei also showed us a great new nuncahku kata, following the basic outline of Pinan Shodan, only not doing the kata with empty hand but with weapon, as well as some new nuncahku drills. Also, sensei performed a new bo kata that he has developed. Both weapons kata were captured on video and will be uploaded onto our Karate Online Video page on our website, so check the website.
Once again, domo arigato to sensei for sharing his valuable time and knowledge with us today – we greatly appreciate it and hope to have more of the same in the near future.
Zen Shin
Sensei Des Chaskelson
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